Retrieving shopping carts in large parking lots has been primarily a manual task. Workers push or pull a column of stacked wheeled shopping carts from various collection areas located throughout the parking lots. The longer the column of carts being pushed or pulled, the more difficult it becomes to control. Even with more than one worker, the collecting and guiding of long columns of carts is difficult and time consuming. Furthermore, in large parking lots, workers must push or pull the column of carts great distances. The retrieval task can be physically exhausting and may result in injury to the workers. Carts also can be damaged as the workers struggle to push or pull long columns to the store door.
In response to the difficulties associated with manual retrieval of shopping carts, motorized cart retrieval devices have been developed for pushing or pulling lines or columns of shopping carts through parking lots in a train-like fashion.
In the case of a “pushing device,” the motorized device is secured to the back of a first shopping cart by an operator. The operator then appends additional carts to the first cart, thereby creating a train of shopping carts situated in front of the pushing device. In operation, the pushing device is controlled either manually or by remote control. Manual operation often requires at least two operators, one at the back end of the train to control the device and one at the forward end of the train to guide the train. Remote operation allows a single operator to guide the train of shopping carts at the forward end of the train while controlling the pushing device at the back end of the train with a remote control.
Examples of “pushing” type motorized shopping cart retrievers are disclosed in: U.S. application Ser. No. 10/965,281, which was filed on Oct. 14, 2004; U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,694 to Schugt et al., which issued Aug. 10, 1999; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,379 to Schugt et al., which issued Apr. 24, 2001. The aforementioned patents and patent application are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties into the present application.
In the case of a “pulling device,” the motorized device is situated at the forward end of the train of shopping carts to the lead the train by pulling the train. The train of shopping carts is situated behind the device and attached to the device with a rope, cable, or the like, which extends from the motorized device and may be fastened to or around the last cart in the train of carts. Each time a cart is added to the train, the rope is unfastened from the previous cart, extended further and then secured to the cart added at the end of the train. The operator walks alongside the motorized device as it pulls the train. When adding additional carts to the end of the train, a pulling device requires operators at both ends of the train or requires the operator to run back and forth between the forward end and the back end of the train because operations occur at both ends of the train of carts.
The desirability of a pushing device or a pulling device depends on various factors, including the number of carts being collected, the physical characteristics of the parking lot or location being navigated, the weather conditions, and the number of operators available, among others. Notably, these factors may vary from time to time, but it may not be cost-effective to invest in two sets of cart retrieval devices, one for pushing and one for pulling. For instance, where a cart collection device includes three wheels—two larger powered wheels on a single axle for propelling the collection device and a smaller swivel wheel for steering the device—it may be advantageous to change the direction of the device in inclement weather. Specifically, the ability to readily place the larger wheels before or after the smaller wheel as desired leverages the benefits of the difference in wheel size for navigating snowy or muddy terrain or the like.
A shopping facility may employ more than one type of shopping cart. Each type of shopping cart may have a size and/or configuration that is different from the other types of shopping carts employed at the shopping facility. The size and/or configuration differences may cause one type of shopping cart to be incompatible with another type of shopping cart with respect to forming a train of carts to be moved by a motorized cart retrieval device. Consequently, each type of cart has to be gathered separately from the other types of shopping carts, thereby reducing productivity.
Often, the length of a train of shopping carts being moved by a motorized cart retrieval device is limited by the structural strength of the type of cart being moved, not by the capabilities of the motorized cart retrieval device. As a result, the capacity of the motorized cart retrieval device in underutilized, requiring additional trips and reducing productivity.
There is a need in the art for a device for, and method of, moving shopping carts that increases productivity and improves operational condition adaptability.